In the Garden of Gethsemane, our Elder Brother plead with our Heavenly Father to remove the bitter cup of pain and suffering that was His Atonement for us all. "Nevertheless," he humbly submitted, "not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke 22:42).
Joseph Smith makes a similar pivot in a letter to the Saints in 1842. Himself in hiding and following decades of persecution, the Prophet prompts his testimony with a modern "nevertheless":
"Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? A voice of gladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth out of the earth... a voice of gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great joy" (D&C 128:19). After citing many of the most wonderful events of the restoration, he concludes, "Shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad."
These and many other accounts inspire and uplift my soul when I'm weighed down with the corruption, sin and deception of the world in which we live. As more people abandon virtue, conscience and principle for doctrines of convenience, we may feel oppressed by the rising tide of manipulative voices trying to shame us into conformity. Indeed, those who are willing to speak up for truth and high morals are often persecuted on social media, in conversations and in the press.
Elder Gordon B. Hinckley stated in 1965, "We hear much in America these days of consensus. It simply means agreement, a meeting of the minds. The doctrine is abroad that whatever bears the brand of consensus is right and good. There never was a more serious fallacy. Fifty thousand Frenchmen can be wrong, as can 50 million Americans or 500 million Chinese... Consensus in matters of public and private morality is largely fruitless and often detrimental unless its roots are anchored in eternal, God-given truth" (Caesar, Circus or Christ, BYU Speeches. October 26, 1965).
Nevertheless, the Lord is mindful of us and hastening His work on the earth. The Lord revealed The Family: A Proclamation to the World in 1995 to prepare us and direct the Church through unprecedented confusion about love and gender that have arisen in recent years. The number of temples on the earth is growing quickly as faithful Saints increasingly need places to escape the claustrophobic crush of evil practices and philosophies. Prophets have been inspired to develop the Come Follow Me program to strengthen individuals and families against the increasingly targeted attacks of our adversary. Those prophets have been inspired again to say those things that the Lord would have us know at a General Conference broadcast around the world. Family history and temple work can be done with a few taps on a smartphone. The Church is reaching a larger and larger number of the world's poor and afflicted with its welfare program and partnerships.
As the Prophet Joseph Smith once said, "The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done" (Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 4:540).
"What power shall stay the heavens?" the Prophet asked on another occasion. "As well might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream, as to hinder the Almighty from pouring down knowledge from heaven upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints" (D&C 121:33).
Some days, when it seems we can see raging persecutions and mobs forming in even places of authority, it is valuable to remember our "nevertheless" that pivots our perspective toward faith in the eternal. The world may attempt to shame us into conformity, nevertheless the truth has been revealed to prophets in our day, and to each of our hearts, from God himself. They may threaten our prosperity, nevertheless the Lord has promised He will provide for those who ask Him. Ultimately, the world may take our lives, as opponents of Christ have done to the faithful in every dispensation, nevertheless we know the Lord will protect us and our days will not be numbered less because of oppression. The jaws of hell itself may gape open its mouth to swallow us, nevertheless it is little more than a man's puny arm attempting to redirect a massive river and cannot prevail if we remain true to the faith.
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